Court opinions

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed drug convictions against two defendants, holding the lower court didn’t err
in admitting a police officer’s voice identification testimony regarding one of the defendants.

The Indiana Supreme Court granted transfer to a case in which a legal professional liability insurer claimed it didn’t
receive actual notice of claims against the attorney, so the former clients couldn’t collect under the plan.

A juvenile court didn’t err in dismissing a delinquency petition against a teen who was found to be incompetent to stand
trial, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled today. The judges also found dismissing the petition did not unduly endanger the
public.

A man charged with a drug dealing offense near a school wasn’t entitled to a jury instruction stating he was only “briefly”
within 1,000 feet of school property because the drug transaction was short in time even though it happened at his house,
the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled today.

The Indiana Court of Appeals encourages collegiality among attorneys when it comes to resolving issues outside of court, but
it had to uphold the striking of documents because they were not timely filed with the trial court. The parties’ attorneys
agreed to an extension of time to reply outside of court, but the trial court had no choice but to not allow the late reply.

The Town of Avon’s attempt to regulate by ordinance a township and conservancy district’s ability to remove and
sell groundwater located in a park failed because the ordinance violated Indiana law, the Indiana Court of Appeals held today.

The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed a man’s conviction for failing to return to the scene of a fatal accident, finding
the state wasn’t barred under collateral estoppel principles from prosecuting him for the same crime as another man
who had already been convicted of causing the victim’s death.

Without a case on point for the Indiana Court of Appeals to follow, the state’s second-highest appellate court has followed
the direction of federal rulings and national precedent on allowing police to search locked glove boxes without a warrant.

The Indiana Court of Appeals split today as to whether a woman who had an order for protection against her should have been
convicted of invasion of privacy when she spoke to the protected party during a court hearing.

Because a chemical breath-test evidence ticket is a mechanically produced readout that can’t be considered “testimonial
hearsay” under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the Indiana Court of Appeals held a man’s Sixth Amendment rights
weren’t violated when the equipment technician didn’t testify at his drunk-driving trial.

The Indiana Court of Appeals declined to address whether a pro se prisoner is “incapacitated” for purposes of
the Indiana Tort Claims Act in a man’s appeal of his suit involving false arrest and false imprisonment.

The Indiana Court of Appeals agreed with the post-conviction court that a defendant didn’t receive ineffective assistance
of trial counsel, finding the man had no right to the effective assistance of counsel at the time he gave a statement to police
in front of the attorney.

The Indiana Supreme Court will hear a case in which a dissenting Court of Appeals judge worried that the majority’s
finding would head toward a bright-line rule regarding the officer safety exception to the warrant requirement in the context
of a car on the side of the road.

A federal judge ruled in favor of an Indianapolis attorney involved in a class-action suit alleging he violated the Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act. The judge granted summary judgment to the attorney after finding the class representative fell outside
the class definition.

The Indiana Court of Appeals remanded a Medicaid benefits denial to the Administrative Law Judge because her decision lacked
findings of fact making the case mostly unreviewable by the appellate court.